Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Before Mary assented, she pondered for a while and asked with some seeming trepidation: "How can it be?, I have no relations with a man".

I guess it is ok to ask questions first, to study implications, to think with a God-given brain, and to understand. After this process, humility should kick in.

As we ponder this, we will realize that our prayers are not always "according to your will", but "according to MY will". Lord, thy will be changed?

At these times, the angel Gabriel may talk to us in many ways. How often have we turned down opportunities in the past to serve the Lord? Remained deaf and indifferent? On this very day that I turn a year older, I ask myself the same question and conclude: I have done very little. And so this day being also the feast day of St. Dismas, I pray for his intercession in pleading to the Lord: Jesus, remember to include me into Paradise! In the meantime, I pray for grace in hearing, wisdom in understanding, and humility in heeding God's will.

I took this picture of my youngest child early today. As far as he is concerned, I am almost always humbled. He just imposes his will on me, most of the time. I wonder why he gets away with it. Maybe it's because of my full assent. Just looking at him, I guess a more apt word is: surrender./

from his First Apology

...And this food is called among us Eukaristia [the Eucharist], of which no one is allowed to partake but the man who believes that the things which we teach are true, and who has been washed with the washing that is for the remission of sins, and unto regeneration, and who is so living as Christ has enjoined. For not as common bread and common drink do we receive these; but in like manner as Jesus Christ our Saviour, having been made flesh by the Word of God, had both flesh and blood for our salvation, so likewise have we been taught that the food which is blessed by the prayer of His word, and from which our blood and flesh by transmutation are nourished, is the flesh and blood of that Jesus who was made flesh. For the apostles, in the memoirs composed by them, which are called Gospels, have thus delivered unto us what was enjoined upon them...